The New England Patriots beatdown of the Houston Texans averaged 17.55 million viewers on CBS & NFL Network. Up 4% versus the 16.9 million for last year’s Giants-Redskins game the same week. With NFL ratings down over the first two weeks, particularly in primetime some folks are (too) quick to assume cause and effect. Among the popular narratives for explaining the declines over the first two weeks are the evergreen “TV is dying” and crazy people who will not stand for this “take a knee” stuff during the anthem tuning out. As Aaron Rodgers might say: R-E-L-A-X.

Though the game averaged 17.55 million, more than 50.5 million (fifty million five hundred thousand!) uniques watched at least a minute of the game. Average viewership peaked between 9:00-9:30 PM, ET with 19.4 million viewers.

The game averaged and additional 398,000 on digital platforms, 327,000 of which was via Twitter. The Twitter numbers were up nearly 35% versus last week’s Jets/Bills contest.